Alleged market cart thief now faces drug charge

Published 6:54 am, Sunday, July 10, 2011

An ambulance call Thursday led to the arrest of a Fairfield woman arrested recently for driving away from Super Stop & Shop, 700 Villa Ave., in an electric cart for the disabled.

Christine Hobbs, 50, of Division Street, was at the grocery store again Thursday night and complained of being short of breath and needing oxygen, police said. Hobbs asked to be taken to St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport but before getting in the ambulance gave police permission to search her purse. In the purse, police said they found a pipe with marijuana residue.

She was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and released on a promise to appear July 14 in Bridgeport Superior Court.

On July 2, Hobbs was charged with third-degree larceny after driving the electric cart, valued at $3,000, to her home about a mile away.